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The  [[eVIEW  of  a  GENER/lTIOt^: 


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Delivered  iij  the  RJiddle  Dutcl^  Cl^urcljj  Lafayette  Place^ 


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By  Talbot  W,  Chambers,  D,D. 


,  j^i j^i) 


DECEMBER  7th,  1879. 

Being  the  thirtieth  anniversary  of  his  installation 

as  one  of  the  f astars  of  the  Iteformed 

Ih'otestant  Butch  6hureh  in  the 

6itij  of  Mew  f  orh. 


NEW  YORK: 
Chas.  H.  Jones  &  Co.,  Printers,  114  Fulton  Street. 


This  discourse,  prepared  at  iha  r^qttest  of 
the  Gonsistarij,  was  repeated  in  the  6htirch  on 
29th  Street  and  5th  |iueniie,  an  the  euening  of 
the  21st  of  Becemher,  and  in  the  Church  on 
ttSth  Street  and  5th  Jiuenue  on  the  euening  of 
the  foUoujing  f>ord's  datj,  and  is  now  published 
under  the  direction  of  those  at  whose  instance 
it  was  written, 


The  Review  of  a  Generation, 


One   generation   passeth  away,  and   another  generation  cometh  :    but   the  earth 
abideth  forever.     Ecclesiastes  i  :  4. 

The  statement  here  made,  like  the  others  that  follow  in  the 
chapter,  seems  designed  only  to  express  the  universality  and 
permanence  of  natural  sequences  in  the  world.  The  same 
phenomena  in  air  and  earth  and  sea  constantly  repeat  them- 
selves. The  thing  that  hath  been  is  that  which  shall  be. 
This  uniformity. gives  validity  to  the  lessons  of  experience, 
and  enables  us  to  reason  effectively  from  the  past  to  the  future. 
But  the  text  viewed  apart  from  its  connection  suggests  what 
is  a  very  trite  and  yet  very  affecting  truth.  The  earth  abides 
from  age  to  age,  yet  man,  for  whom  it  was  made,  flits  like  a 
shadow  across  its  surface.  The  race  survives,  but  the  com- 
ponent parts  are  a  perpetual  succession.  As  the  Son  of 
Sirach  says  (Ecclesiasticus  XIV:  18):  "As  of  the  green  leaves 
on  a  thick  tree  some  fall  and  some  grow ;  so  is  the  generation 
of  flesh  and  blood,  one  cometh  to  an  end  and  another  is  born." 
The  same  comparison  was  used  by  Homer  ages  before. 

"  Like  the  race  of  leaves 
Is  that  of  humankind.     Upon  the  ground 
The  winds  strew  one  year's  leaves  ;    the  sprouting  grove 
Puts  forth  another  brood  that  shoot  and  grow 
In  the  Spring  season.     So  it  is  with  man  : 
One  generation  grows  while  one  decays." 

(11.  VI :   18 6.     Bryanrs  Version.) 

The  same  thought  was  expressed  in  a  different  form  by  the 
Apostle  when  he  reminded  the  Corinthians,  that  "the  fashion 
of  this  world  passeth  away."  The  allusion  is  to  the  shifting 
scenes  of  a  theatre.  But  the  scenes  shift  because  the  action 
of  the  play  advances.     In   the  vegetable  creation  the   leaves 


The  Review  of  a  Generation. 


fall  to-day  in  the  same  way  and  for  the  same  reason  that 
they  did  in  the  time  of  Homer  and  the  Son  of  Sirach.  If 
the  oak  now  shown  at  Hebron  as  the  identical  tree  under 
which  Abraham  pitched  his  tent,  were  really  the  same,  the 
spring  and  the  decay  of  its  vegetation  would  show  no  differ- 
ence in  character  or  result.  But  in  the  world  of  mind  there 
is  no  such  unchanging  uniformity.  Each  generation,  though  in 
its  turn  it  passes  away  like  all  that  have  gone  before,  does  not 
do  so  after  the  same  fashion  or  with  the  same  results.  There 
is  a  march  in  human  events.  There  is  a  continuous  life  and  a 
growing  development  in  the  history  of  the  race.  There  is  a 
divine  plan  which  works  out  its  own  fulfillment  amid  the  jar- 
ring discords  and  selfish  antagonisms  of  individuals  and  com- 
munities. The  actors  in  the  scene  are  rarely  conscious  of 
the  "  divinity  which  shapes  our  ends,"  but  it  is  none  the  less 
certain  that  such  a  divinity  exists  and  exercises  its  sovereign, 
controlling  will.  One  generation  goeth  and  another  cometh, 
but  something  more  has  taken  place  than  simply  the  replace- 
ment of  one  set  of  men  by  another.  The  new  generation 
does  not  find  things  wlierc  and  as  the  old  one  found  them, 
but  specifically  different.  In  some  places  and  at  some  periods, 
there  may  be  such  a  stagnation  of  heart  and  soul,  such  a 
stereotype  phase  of  character,  that  one  generation  is  simply 
the  reproduction  of  its  predecessor,  just  as  the  Bedaween  of 
the  desert  are,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  the  same  now 
that  they  were  before  the  Christian  era.  But  in  the  general 
the  [)lay  of  life  and  freedom,  the  exercise  of  reason  and  will, 
men's  virtues  and  their  vices,  the  arts  of  war  and  of  peace, 
discoveries,  inventions  and  theories,  all  concur  to  introduce 
changes,  sometimes  so  great,  as  for  instance  in  the  closing 
years  of  the  last  century,  that  the  newcomers  seem  to  be 
almost  in  a  different  world  from  that  in  which  their  fathers 
first  saw  the  light. 

It  is  worth  while,  then,  to  stop  at  intervals  in  the  rapid 
current  of  present  interests  and  review  what  has  gone  before, 
to  consider  the  course  of  our  immediate  predecessors,  and 
estimate  its  character,  or  causes  or  results,  that  we  may  find 


The  Nation. 


reason  for  thankfulness,  or  encouragement  or  warning,  as  the 
ease  may  be.  And  this  is  what  is  proposed  on  the  present 
occasion  so  far  as  circumstances  permit.  It  is  now  thirty 
years  since,  in  this  house,  I  was  installed  as  one  of  the  pastors 
of  the  Collegiate  Church.  We  were  then  just  completing  the 
first  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  not  a  few  discourses 
were  soon  afterwards  preached  and  printed  in  reference  to 
that  particular  juncture,  looking  backward  as  well  as  forward 
from  what  was  called  "the  noon  of  the  century."  Since  then 
the  period  usually  counted  to  a  generation  has  rolled  away. 
Almost  all  the  men  who  were  at  that  time  prominent  on  the 
world's  broad  stage  in  whatever  particular  sphere,  have  either 
finished  their  course,  or  are  soon  expecting  the  summons 
which  one  day  or  another  comes  to  all.  It  is  quite  possible, 
then,  to  review  the  period  as  a  whole  and  mark  its  salient 
features,  glancing  at  the  Connection  of  events,  and  tracing  as 
we  may  the  hand  of  divine  providence.  This  may  be  done  in 
reference  to  three  points  :  the  nation,  the  denomination,  and 
our  own  particular  church. 

I.  The  Nation. 

Here  one  may  safely  begin  with  the  remark  that  never  in 
the  whole  history  of  the  country  was  there  a  more  eventful, 
a  more  epoch-making  period  than  that  of  the  generation  just 
passed.  Not  even  the  men  who  a  century  ago  saw  the  birth 
of  National  Independence  lived  at  a  more  critical  or  influential 
juncture.  They  simply  hastened  what  in  any  event  could  not 
have  been  long  delayed.  That  one  Anglo-Saxon  people  could 
safely  and  continuously  govern  another  of  the  same  training, 
character  and  institutions  at  a  distance  of  three  thousand  miles 
without  representation,  was  an  obvious  impossibility.  While, 
therefore,  we  owe  a  very  great  debt  to  our  Revolutionary 
Fathers,  it  is  not  one  of  incalculable  proportions.  They  pre- 
cipitated events,  and  their  sore  and  prolonged  struggle 
stimulated  patriotism  and  cemented  union  as  perhaps  nothing 
else  could  have  done.     Still  this  great  continent,  peopled  as 


The  Review  of  a  Generation. 


it  was,  could  not  have  long  continued  a  mere  dependence  of  a 
trans-Atlantic  monarchy.  The  trial  which  the  recent  genera- 
tion had  to  endure  was  much  greater,  on  a  wider  scale,  more 
costly  in  blood  and  treasure,  and  farther  reaching  in  its  in- 
fluence and  results.  It  made  the  country  one  continuous 
battle-field  from  the  Potomac  to  the  Rio  Grande.  It  put  men 
under  arms  by  the  million.  It  heaped  up  the  public  debt  by 
hundreds,  even  thousands  of  millions.  It  strained  the  powers  of 
constitutional  government  in  a  way  and  to  an  extent  which  every 
statesman  prays  may  never  be  repeated.  And  it  determined 
the  question  as  to  the  social,  civil  and  political  rights  of  more 
than  four  millions  of  colored  people.  Scarcely  anything  in  all 
the  records  of  the  race  parallels  this  extraordinary  conflict.  It 
was  a  civil  war,  a  social  war  and  a  war  of  principles.  It  was 
fought  with  desperate  courage  and  unyielding  devotion,  nor 
was  it  terminated  except  by  the  absolute  exhaustion  of  the 
unsuccessful  party.  When  the  last  man  had  been  enlisted 
and  the  last  dollar  expended  in  vain,  the  flag  must  needs  be 
struck.  And  though  peace  has  reigned  for  well  nigh  fifteen 
years,  the  gaping  wounds  of  the  fight  have  not  yet  closed, 
and  another  term  of  fifteen  years  must  pass  before  its  waste 
and  havoc  shall  be  fully  repaired,  even  under  the  smiles  of  a 
benignant  Providence. 

Yet,  in  the  judgment  of  most  thinking  men,  the  results  have 
been  worth  all  that  they  cost.  They  have  settled  forever 
some  issues  which  it  was  of  the  last  importance  to  determine, 
and  especially  to  determine  rightly.  The  great  peculiarity 
of  our  country  is  that  it  consists  of  a  number  of  common- 
wealths called  states,  which  are  sovereign  in  all  local  and 
domestic  matters,  while  in  others  they  are  subordinate  to  what 
is  called  the  general  or  federal  government.  The  legitimate 
exercise  of  the  powers  of  both  governments  is  essential  to  the 
well-being  of  the  whole,  and  neither  can  be  sacrificed  to  the 
other  without  loss;  just  as  in  the  solar  system  the  centrifugal 
and  the  centripetal  forces  reciprocally  balance  each  other,  and 
so  preserve  the  equilibrium  of  the  mighty  organism.  But 
from  the  very  beginning  there  was  a  wide  difference  of  opinion 


The  Nation. 


as  to  the  just  metes  and  bounds  of  these  forces,  some  being 
disposed  to  emphasize  the  sovereignty  of  the  general  govern- 
ment, others  that  of  the  individual  states.  This  difference  of 
opinion,  within  appropriate  limits,  was  rather  beneficial  than 
harmful,  serving  as  it  did  for  a  barrier  against  consolidation 
on  the  one  side  and  disintegration  on  the  other.  But  some- 
times it  was  urged  beyond  its  due  limits.  During  the  admin- 
istration of  General  Jackson  it  was  claimed  that  a  State  could 
nullify  a  law  of  Congress  regularly  passed — a  claim  which,  if 
allowed,  would  necessarily  overthrow  the  general  government. 
It  was  therefore  resisted,  and  but  for  the  interposition  of  a 
compromise  touching  the  policy  at  issue,  the  point  would 
then  have  been  decided  by  a  resort  to  force.  Many  wise  and 
patriotic  men  have  contended  that  it  would  have  been  far 
better  to  have  fought  out  the  question  at  that  time  when  the 
struggle  would  not  have  been  so  severe  and  costly  as  it  after- 
wards became.  But  it  did  not  so  please  the  Lord.  He  seems 
to  have  intended  to  delay  the  appeal  to  arms  until  it  could 
issue  in  a  reconstruction  of  the  civil  status  of  nearly  the  whole 
people.     That  time  came  about  twenty  years  ago. 

Its  origin  was  on  this  wise.  For  a  long  time  after  the  forma- 
tion of  the  federal  constitution  the  North  and  the  South,  the 
free  states  and  the  slave,  lived  in  harmony  because  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States  was  equally  divided  between  them,  and 
there  was,  therefore,  no  danger  of  adverse  legislation  to  either. 
But  in  process  of  time  new  states  were  formed,  and  that  more 
rapidly  in  the  northern  section,  threatening  at  no  distant  day  to 
give  a  decided  preponderance  to  the  latter.  This  fact  awakened 
great  apprehension  and  led  to  serious  efforts  to  counteract  or 
ward  off  the  threatened  evil.  The  conflicts  thus  occasioned 
were  averted  by  compromises,  once  about  the  year  1820,  and 
again  about  the  year  1850.  And  the  public  mind  of  the 
entire  North  was  settled  upon  two  points:  i.  That  the  guar- 
antees of  the  constitution  under  which  slavery  existed  in  the 
Southern  states  as  a  domestic  institution,  should  never  be 
disturbed;  and  2.  That  those  guarantees  should  never  be 
extended  so  as  to  protect  the  introduction  of  slavery  into  new 


lo  The  Review  of  a  Generation. 


states.  But  the  leaders  of  the  South  were  not  satisfied  with 
this.  They  insisted  that  the  limitation  of  the  territorial  limits 
of  slavery  was  equivalent  to  a  decree  for  its  extinction,  for  the 
preponderance  of  the  free  States  would  ultimately  become  so 
great  that  the  others  would  be  wholly  in  their  power. 

They  accordingly  determined  to  force  a  conflict  before  the 
odds  became  greater  than  they  then  were.  They  seceded  and 
set  up  a  separate  and  independent  government,  and  presently 
the  whole  land  was  aflame  with  civil  war.  How  it  ended  and 
what  followed  I  need  not  repeat.  But  one  result  was  vast  and 
irreversible.  The  very  institution,  the  preservation  of  which 
gave  rise  to  the  struggle,  perished  forever.  Of  late  there  have 
been  many  discussions  about  the  agency  of  individuals  and 
associations  at  the  North  in  securing  this  result.  To  me  it 
seems  clear  that  they  had  no  agency  whatsoever.  At  the  hour 
when  the  first  gun  was  fired  against  Fort  Sumter,  the  consti- 
tutional guarantees  of  the  domestic  institutions  at  the  South 
stood  as  firm  and  strong  as  they  had  ever  done.  They  had 
not  even  begun  to  give  way.  Nor  had  the  legislature  of  even 
a  single  Northern  State  been  persuaded  to  take  any  step  inter- 
fering with  the  permanence  of  those  guarantees.  Nor  was 
there  any  reason  to  fear  that  in  the  future,  near  or  remote, 
they  would  take  such  a  step.  On  the  contrary,  such  was  the 
horror  of  disunion,  such  was  the  dread  of  what  might  result 
from  an  armed  collision,  that  the  great  body  of  the  people 
were  disposed  to  push  concessions  to  the  furthest  point, 
rather  than  wound  the  sensibilities  of  the  South.  Individuals, 
and  many  of  them,  were  indeed  otherwise  minded,  but  they 
found  no  sympathy  in  the  body  of  the  people.  It  follows, 
then,  that  slavery  perished  at  the  hands  of  its  own  friends. 
They  put  its  continuance  at  the  ha^card  of  war,  and  it  followed 
the  fate  of  its  advocates.  That  it  has  ceased  is  a  matter  of 
joy  to  nine-tenths  of  all  the  people,  North  and  South.  How- 
ever tolerable  the  institution  may  once  have  been,  its  existence 
at  this  day  in  this  land  would  be  an  anachronism.  For  all  civil, 
social,  religious  and  economic  interests,  it  is  better  that  capital 
should  hire  labor  than  own  it.     To  deny  this  is  to  deny  the 


The  Nation.  1 1 


testimony  of  all  experience  and  the  conclusions  of  all  just 
reasoning.  Freedom  is  best  for  every  rational  being.  Sub- 
jugation is  necessary  for  brutes;  but  if  man,  made  in  the 
image  of  God,  is  to  achieve  a  position  worthy  of  his  origin,  it 
must  be  in  the  development  of  his  own  powers  restricted  only 
by  reason  and  law.  To  put  him  in  servitude  is,  as  was  seen 
as  long  ago  as  in  the  days  of  Homer,  to  take  half  his  worth 
away. 

But  the  wonder  of  wonders  in  our  late  conflict  was  that 
when  over  four  millions  of  slaves  were  converted  into  freemen, 
not  by  the  intentional  act  of  their  masters,  but  as  a  result  of 
war,  there  were  no  social  disorders  whatever;  none  of  the  deeds 
of  rapine  and  bloodshed,  which  in  other  lands  have  invariably 
followed  such  a  change.  It  was  a  mighty  revolution,  and 
when  it  occurred  men  were  well  warranted  in  standing  still  in 
silent  awe  to  see  whereunto  it  would  lead.  It  was  not  a 
single  island  of  the  sea  or  some  remote  colony,  but  fourteen 
stately  commonwealths,  in  the  heart  of  a  continent,  whose 
whole  system  of  labor  was  thus  instantaneously  subjected  to 
entire  abrogation.  Yet  such  was  the  docility  of  the  subject 
race,  such  their  amazing  forbearance,  and  I  may  add,  such  the 
influence  of  the  Christian  teachings,  which  in  some  form  or 
degree  all  had  enjoyed,  that  the  transition  was  made  without 
the  slightest  jar — so  that  the  manner  of  the  change  was  equal 
to  the  change  itself  The  great  blot  upon  our  escutcheon  was 
erased,  the  great  reproach  of  our  institutions  removed,  the 
sharp  contrast  between  the  freedom  of  one  class  and  the 
bondage  of  another  taken  away,  and  yet  there  were  no  gar- 
ments rolled  in  blood  nor  any  confused  noise.  Millions  of 
fetters  melted  away  like  snow  beneath  the  sun,  and  a  whole 
race  sprang  from  serfdom  into  manhood,  without  even  a 
single  breach  of  the  peace  or  a  solitary  act  of  revenge  for  real 
or  fancied  wrongs  of  old.  The  disbandment  of  over  a  million 
of  men,  and  their  quiet  return  to  the  ordinary  employments 
of  life,  was  justly  considered  a  very  remarkable  thing — one, 
however,  which  was  due  to  the  character  of  the  American 
people,  as  trained  by  all  the  traditions  and  influences  of  the 


12  The  Review  of  a  Generation. 


past  to  obey  rightful  laws  and  to  renounce  the  camp  as  soon 
as  the  end  was  gained  for  which  the  camp  had  been  entered. 
But  the  colored  people  had  been  not  citizens  but  slaves,  and 
were  called  to  a  course  in  which  they  had  no  precedent  to 
guide  them,  and  as  having  been  before  controlled  only  by  force, 
might  have  been  expected  to  run  riot  in  their  new-found 
liberty.  Yet  they  bore  the  transition  with  peculiar  self- 
restraint.  It  may  be  added  that  when  afterwards  political 
franchises  were  added  to  their  civil  rights,  and  our  favorite 
notion  of  universal  suffrage  received  an  unparalleled  expansion, 
the  result  was  far  from  being  as  injurious  as  men  had  previously 
supposed.  It  is  true  that  the  freedmen  were  at  times  fearfully 
cajoled  and  hoodwinked,  yet  it  hardly  becomes  the  inhabitants 
of  our  city  to  reflect  harshly  upon  them,  when  we  remember 
the  frightful  robberies  and  gross  political  immoralities  perpe- 
trated among  us  for  a  series  of  years  by  officers  chosen  by 
the  people.  Yet  our  colored  brethren  have  grown  rapidly  in 
political  sense,  and  there  seems  no  reason  now  to  doubt  that 
they  will  learn  the  proper  exercise  of  suffrage  as  soon  and  as 
readily  as  the  hosts  of  immigrants  whom  each  year  brings  to 
our  shores,  and  possibly  sooner. 

Such  then  was  the  great  public,  secular  event  of  the  last 
generation.  There  were  others  indeed  of  no  small  importance, 
such  as  the  ocean  telegraph  with  its  world-wide  diffusion,  the 
phonograph  and  the  audiphone,  the  immense  development  of 
mining  interests  all  over  the  country,  railroads  across  the 
entire  continent,  the  discovery  of  petroleum,  the  increase  of 
labor-saving  inventions  in  every  department  of  industry ;  in 
like  manner  the  changes  in  the  map  of  Europe,  the  trans- 
formation of  Germany  from  a  geographical  expression  into  a 
real  and  most  important  political  body,  the  overthrow  of  the 
Pope's  temporal  power  and  the  yet  greater  changes  wrought 
by  the  Vatican  Council  and  its  decrees,  the  unification  of  Italy, 
the  restoration  of  France  to  a  republican  government,  the 
abolition  of  serfdom  in  Russia,  the  dismemberment  of  Turkey; 
the  changes  in  Asia  by  which  India  has  become  a  direct 
appanage  of  the  British  crown,  and  China  and  Japan  have  been 


The  Denomination.  13 


brought  into  political  fellowship  with  the  family  of  nations ; 
the  progress  of  discovery  in  intertropical  Africa,  and  the  canal 
through  the  Isthmus  of  Suez,  which  has  revolutionized  the 
course  of  the  world's  commerce;  the  confederation  of  the 
British  colonies  on  our  northern  border,  and  the  establishment 
of  religious  liberty  in  the  republic  south  of  us  :  all  these  and 
other  events  of  the  like  kind  will  worthily  fill  an  important 
place  in  the  pages  of  those  who  hereafter  shall  write  the  his- 
tory of  our  times;  but  to  us  the  one  great  transcendant  fact  of 
the  last  thirty  years  is  the  war  for  the  Union,  with  its  causes 
and  its  consequences.  This  tested  the  question  whether  the 
nation  was  able  to  preserve  its  own  life.  This  showed  that 
patriotism,  loyalty  and  self-sacrifice  were  not  mere  names  but 
things.  This  determined  whether  America  was  to  be  a  repro- 
duction of  Europe,  with  its  miserable  jealousies  and  boundary 
quarrels,  or  a  great  federal  state,  the  imperial,  but  impartial 
protector  of  all  its  parts  and  constituencies.  Nay,  it  solved  the 
problem  whether  a  self-governed  community  could  deal  with 
and  conquer  the  most  formidable  sedition  known  in  history,  and 
yet  come  out  of  the  conflict  with  every  essential  principle  of 
its  constitution  unharmed.  These  questions  have  been  settled, 
and  they  will  not  need  to  be  reopened  in  your  life  time,  or  that 
of  your  children,  or  your  children's  children.  And  if  any 
people  on  the  face  of  the  earth  are  or  ever  were  bound  to 
the  service  of  the  Most  High  by  gratitude  for  unspeakable 
national  mercies,  it  is  the  American  people. 

II.  The  Denomination. 

The  review  of  the  last  thirty  years  shows  a  very  great  pro- 
gress and  expansion  in  our  branch  of  Zion,  together  with 
one  or  two  serious  drawbacks.  The  number  of  ministers  and 
churches  has  nearly  doubled,  and  the  number  of  members  in 
full  communion  has  much  more  than  doubled,  (rising  from 
33,980  to  80,228),  while  the  Classes  have  increased  from 
twenty-four  to  thirty-three,  and  the  two  Particular  Synods 
have  become  four,  thus  showing  an  increase  equal  to  that 
of  the  entire  country  as  indicated  by  the  census.     This  growth 


14  The  Review  of  a  Generation. 


has  not  come  up  to  that  of  some  of  our  sister  churches,  and 
yet,  perhaps,  it  is  large  enough,  if  one  considers  that  in  all 
moral  and  spiritual  interests  quality  is  of  far  more  importance 
than  quantity,  and  that  in  every  living  organism  the  addition 
of  new  material  is  of  value  only  so  far  as  it  is  assimilated.  An 
overgrown  body,  that  is,  one  in  which  the  increase  of  bulk  is 
not  balanced  by  the  coherence  of  the  parts,  is  always  in 
danger  of  disintegration  and  decay.  Our  enlargement  has  been 
owing  partly  to  the  natural  increase  of  population  in  well- 
ordered  and  flourishing  communities,  but  more  to  an  extensive 
immigration  from  the  mother  country.  In  the  years  1846-7,^ 
many  "thousands  of  Hollanders,  led  not  only  by  the  hope 
of  improving  their  temporal  condition,  but  also  by  the  desire 
of  greater  religious  liberty  and  development  than  they  could 
attain  in  their  own  country,  sought  new  homes  within  the 
western  portion  of  the  United  States,  bringing  with  them 
not  much  material  wealth,  but  a  wealth  of  character  and 
habits  which  rendered  them  a  most  desirable  accession  to  any 
community.  Some  of  these  affiliated  with  other  denomina- 
tions, but  the  most  of  them,  as  was  natural,  entered  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years  into  the  fellowship  of  that  body  which 
bore  the  ancestral  name,  and  retained  the  standards,  the 
liturgy  and  the  usages  of  "the  church  under  the  cross."  And 
although  on  some  subjects  there  is  not  entire  oneness  of  opin- 
ion between  the  eastern  and  the  western  portions  of  our  church, 
yet  there  seems  no  reason  to  doubt  that  in  due  time  agree- 
ment as  to  faith  and  doctrine,  and  all  the  es.sentials  of  spiritual 
life  will  be  followed  by  agreement  as  to  certain  details  of 
administration  and  discipline.  Meanwhile  there  has  been  a 
development  of  intellectual  vigor,  of  holy  consecration  and 
generous  self-sacrifice  among  our  brethren  at  the  West,  which 
has  justly  excited  the  admiration  and  praise  of  all  who  know 
tlicm.  They  are  every  way  worthy  to  be  descendants  of  the 
men  who  for  centuries  made  Holland  illustrious  by  their 
heroism,  their  constancy,  their  unyielding  devotion  to  the 
claims  of  God  and  the  rights  of  man.  And  the  time  may  not  be 
far  di.stant  when  the  centre  of  our  church  will  be  found  not 
on  the  seaboard  but  near  the  great  lakes. 


TJie  Denomination.  1 5 


In  the  matter  of  denominational  agencies,  the  last  genera- 
tion has  witnessed  a  very  marked  change.  I  begin  with 
Foreign  Missions.  For  many  years  these  had  been  conducted 
in  close  co-operation  with  that  noble  institution,  the  American 
Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions.  And  although 
no  fault  was  or  could  be  found  with  this  ancient  corporation, 
either  as  to  its  aims  or  its  methods,  yet  it  was  felt  that  so  long 
as  there  was  no  direct  connection  between  our  church  and 
its  missionaries,  it  would  be  impossible  to  awaken  any  esprit  de 
corps  among  our  people  or  to  bring  out  either  their  means 
or  their  interest  to  the  proper  degree.  After  careful  consider- 
ation it  was  determined  with  great,  nearly  absolute,  unanimity 
to  institute  separate  action  and  carry  on  the  mission  work 
independently.  The  impression  upon  the  church  was  like 
that  of  an  electric  shock.  The  whole  body  sprang  to  its  feet 
at  once.  Not  only  were  the  old  missions  to  China  and  India 
continued  with  enlarged  means,  but  a  new  one  was  begun  in 
the  interesting  region  which  had  just  been  opened  to  inter- 
course with  Christendom.  As  the  United  States  was  the  first 
government  which,  by  its  wisdom  and  skill,  unlocked  the 
doors  of  Japan,  our  church  was  the  first  body  of  Christians  to 
enter  those  doors  with  the  lamp  of  life.  And  taking  these 
three  mission  fields,  as  a  whole,  it  has  been  truly  said  that 
nowhere  in  the  heathen  world  has  better  or  more  successful 
work  been  done  under  like  circumstances,  whether  one  con- 
sult the  records  of  ancient  times  or  modern.  It  is  true  that 
the  glowing  zeal  of  the  first  few  years  of  independent  action 
did  not  continue,  and  the  embarrassments  caused  by  the  high 
price  of  exchange  during  and  after  the  war  became  of  a  very 
threatening  nature,  extrication  from  which  once  occurred 
almost  by  miracle,  and  even  now  the  carrying  of  a  heavy  debt 
seems  to  have  become  chronic.  Yet,  I  think,  upon  the  whole, 
I  am  justified  in  saying  that  in  the  last  twenty-two  years  our 
church  has  contributed  to  the  foreign  work  more  money  in 
proportion  than  any  other ;  that  a  less  percentage  of  the  con- 
tributions has  been  consumed  in  office  or  home  expenses;  and 
that   the   actual   results    in   souls  hopefully  saved,  churches 


1 6  The  Review  of  a  Generation. 


formed,  and  regions  brought  under  Christian  influence,  have 
not  been  in  any  populations  of  Hke  character  surpassed,  if  they 
have  been  equaled. 

In  Domestic  Missions  the  growth  has  been  in  the  way  of 
normal  development.  Four  times  as  much  money  was  con- 
tributed for  this  cause  by  churches  and  individuals  last  year 
as  there  was  thirty  years  ago,  while  the  number  of  missionary 
stations  and  missionaries  has  doubled.  But  not  only  is  more 
work  done  than  formcrl}^  but  it  is  better  done.  Experience 
has  taught  how  to  guard  against  errors,  to  adapt  men  and 
measures  to  their  intended  places,  to  call  in  the  best  executive 
talent  of  our  church,  to  make  full  proof  of  our  system  of 
polity,  to  take  large  views  of  the  whole  field,  and  thus  to 
secure  with  God's  blessing  the  wisest  and  most  economical 
application  of  the  church's  gifts.  The  steady  shower  of  criti- 
cism, sometimes  reasonable  and  often  very  unreasonable,  to 
which  Boards  and  Secretaries  in  our  small  church  are  exposed, 
while  occasionally  very  annoying  yet  has  certainly  done 
good  in  compelling  constant  care  and  watchfulness  in  admin- 
istration. The  labors  of  the  Domestic  Board  were  very  much 
increased  by  the  Holland  immigrants,  already  referred  to,  who 
now  amount  to  about  one-eighth  of  the  membership.  These, 
although  as  in  the  case  of  one  of  the  Apostolic  churches, 
their  "  deep  poverty  abounded  unto  the  riches  of  their  liberal- 
ity," were  yet  quite  unable  to  overtake  their  own  needs, 
and  required  to  be  aided  both  in  getting  houses  of  worship 
and  in  supporting  their  ministers.  With  many  of  them  ready 
money  was  almost  an  unknown  quantity.  Under  these  cir- 
cumstances the  Board,  as  the  church's  almoner,  came  to 
the  rescue  and  was  the  means  under  God  of  supplying  with 
the  ordinances  of  worship  many  a  feeble  congregation,  which 
but  for  this  aid  would  have  greatly  suffered  and  languished, 
and  might  indeed  have  been  wholly  dissipated.  And  even 
there,  as  all  over  the  East,  churches  can  be  pointed  out 
which  once  feeble  and  struggling  have  long  outgrown  the 
need  of  help  and  have  been  transformed  from  beneficiaries 
to  benefactors.     To  this  Board  was  entrusted    in   1854  the 


The  Denomhiation.  17 


work  of  providing  a  Church  Building  Fund,  designed  to  aid 
feeble  organizations  in  securing  houses  of  worship.  The 
plans  adopted  in  the  first  instance  were  crude,  and  progress 
was  slow.  But  under  the  teachings  of  experience  the  proper 
modifications  were  made,  and  the  institution  became  successful. 
Money  is  given  only  when  it  will  put  a  church  out  of  debt ; 
and  proper  security  is  taken  so  that  in  the  event  of  an 
unforeseen  failure  the  amount  may  be  recovered  for  the 
use  of  the  denomination.  The  Fund  now  amounts  to  ;^6o,ooo, 
and  to  it  we  owe  the  prosperity,  if  not  the  very  existence, 
of  some  of  our  most  important  congregations  both  in  the 
East  and  in  the  West.  Two  other  Funds  indicate  equal 
progress.  One,  the  Widow's  Fund,  although  suggested  a 
century  ago,  hardly  took  shape  until  the  year  1837,  and 
even  then  was  retarded,  by  the  immaturity  of  its  provisions. 
But  these  in  the  course  of  time  were  amended  and  perfected, 
and  now  the  capital  which  thirty  years  ago  was  under  ^5,000 
has  been  increased  ten-fold.  And  to-day  its  blessed  minis- 
trations are  making  the  heart  of  many  a  widow  and  orphan 
sing  for  joy.  Similar  to  this  is  the  other  institution,  the 
Disabled  Ministers'  Fund,  the  object  of  which  is  expressed 
by  its  title.  Originated  twenty-four  years  ago,  it  now  has  a 
capital  of  about  ;$20,000,  and  by  the  interest  on  investments 
and  the  offerings  of  the  churches,  has  been  enabled  to  relieve 
in  a  substantial  yet  delicate  way  many  distressing  cases  of 
need. 

In  the  matter  of  Education  for  the  Gospel  ministry  the 
advance  has  been  truly  remarkable.  The  number  of  endowed 
scholarships  has  more  than  doubled,  the  invested  funds  have 
trebled  (rising  from  $31,000  to  $99,000),  and  the  annual  con- 
tributions of  individuals  and  churches  have  quadrupled.  In 
consequence  of  the  well-known  bequest  of  the  late  Rev.  Elias 
Van  Bunschooten,  truly  magnificent  for  his  day,  (1814),  and 
some  others  of  smaller  amount,  there  had  gradually  grown  up 
in  a  large  portion  of  the  church  the  conviction  that  enough 
had  been  done  in  this  regard,  and  further  effort  would  be  super- 
fluous.    The  honor  of  overcoming  this  mistaken  and  unworthy 


1 8  TJic  Review  of  a  Generation. 


feeling  and  supplanting  it  by  a  new  and  lively  interest  in  the 
whole  subject  is  due  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  James  A.  H.  Cornell,  who 
became  Secretary  of  the  Board  in  1855,  and  devoted  himself 
with  characteristic  zeal  and  energy  to  a  thorough  canvass  of 
the  denomination,  removing  objections,  explaining  difficulties, 
stimulating  faith  and  zeal,  in  short,  doing  all  that  needed  to  be 
done  to  bring  the  mind  of  the  church  up  to  a  sense  of  its  duty 
and  responsibility.  The  results  of  this  faithful  effort  continue 
to  this  day,  and  the  more  as  these  labors  have  been  well  sup- 
plemented by  the  able  and  faithful  man  who  followed  Dr. 
Cornell  in  the  same  field.  It  is  fashionable  nowadays  to  de- 
preciate beneficiary  education  as  wholly  bad.  I  cannot  stop 
to  argue  the  question  at  length ;  but  it  is  enough  to  say  that  in 
all  ages  in  which  the  church  has  had  ministers  trained  and  apt 
to  teach,  very  many  of  them  required  pecuniary  aid  in  their 
preparation,  and  that  of  our  ministry  to-day  one-third  have 
received  such  aid,  and  yet  that  third  is  not  a  whit  behind  the 
other  two-thirds  in  any  mental  or  spiritual  gift  or  in  the 
degree  in  which  the  divine  blessing  crowns  their  labors.  But 
the  progress  in  ministerial  education  is  not  to  be  measured 
merely  by  the  resources  of  the  Board  constituted  for  that  pur- 
pose. Rutgers  College,  (once  called  Queen's,  as  Columbia 
was  King's),  and  the  Theological  Seminary  at  New  Brunswick, 
are  both  to  be  taken  into  the  account.  The  former  was  founded 
before  the  Revolution  chiefly,  if  not  solely,  for  the  purpose  of 
educating  a  properly  qualified  ministry.  It  struggled  for  a 
long  time  with  a  narrow  income,  but  although  even  now 
under  some  embarrassments,  its  situation  has  been  altered 
immensely  for  the  better.  Its  endowments,  its  number  of 
students,  its  buildings,  its  apparatus,  its  reputation  and  its 
usefulness  are  double  what  they  were  thirty  years  ago.  Still 
greater  is  the  change  in  the  Theological  Seminary.  Formerly 
it  had  no  edifices  for  its  exclusive  use,  but  shared  the  use 
of  one  building  with  the  college.  Now  it  has  a  separate 
dwelling  for  each  of  the  four  professors,  a  commodious  hall 
for  the  use  of  the  students,  an  admirable  building  for  lecture 
rooms    and    a    museum,   and  a   companion    structure  which 


The  Denomination.  19 


is  entirely  fire-proof,  containing  a  library  which,  for  the 
number  and  value  of  its  contents,  is  surpassed  by  that  of 
no  other  theological  institution  in  the  country.  The  perma- 
nent funds  of  the  seminary  are  at  least  three-fold  what  they 
were.  This  growth  is  matter  of  especial  satisfaction  to  us, 
because  the  traditions  of  our  fathers  both  beyond  the  sea 
and  amid  all  the  fearful  struggles  of  the  colonial  era  in  this 
country,  have  been  inseparably  bound  up  with  the  school 
of  the  prophets,  and  because  so  large  a  portion  of  the  gifts 
for  this  purpose  were  made  by  members  of  the  Collegiate 
church,  especially  by  two  whose  names  are  worthily  connect- 
ed with  the  fruits  of  their  bounty,  of  whom  one  *  has  gone 
to  his  reward,  while  the  other  f  still  lives  to  serve  the  church 
by  his  counsels  and  his  toils  as  well  as  by  his  gifts.  It  is 
well  to  remember  that  in  these  days  of  haste  and  sciolism 
and  shallowness,  the  church  has  gone  on  steadily  laying 
broader  and  deeper  foundations  for  the  most  thorough  and 
complete  training  of  those  who  are  to  minister  at  her  altars. 

Nor  should  I  here  omit  to  mention  what  has  been  done  in 
this  direction  at  the  West.  An  excellent  academy  ripened 
into  a  college,  to  which  was  added  a  theological  seminary. 
But  it  was  found  that  this  last  step  was  in  advance  of  the  time, 
and  under  the  pressure  of  recent  trouble  in  the  commercial 
world  theological  instruction  has  been  discontinued.  But  the 
college  remains,  and  the  past  is  a  pledge  of  the  church's  con- 
victions and  interests.  A  hard  struggle  is  to  be  carried  on  for 
the  present,  but  success  will  sooner  or  later  come,  and  then  it 
will  be  seen  that  the  self-denials  and  trials  of  the  formative 
period  were  all  essential  to  the  final  result.  In  the  meanwhile 
the  work  already  done  in  Hope  College  and  Seminary  is  a 
grand  compensation  for  all  that  it  cost. 

In  1855  there  was  commenced  a  Board  of  Publication,  to 
perform  the  same  office  among  us  as  similar  boards  in  other 
churches.  Its  advance  was  much  hindered  by  the  want  of 
cordial  support  from  a  portion  of  the  denomination  and  by 
lack  of  practical  wisdom  in  its  management,  so  that  at  one 
*  Mr.  James  Suydam.  t  Mr.  Gardner  A.  Sage. 


20  TJic  Rcviczv  of  a  Generation. 


time  it  passed  into  the  hands  of  a  receiver.  But  it  was  soon 
extricated,  and  is  now  under  such  an  administration  as  guar- 
antees us  against  any  Hke  difificulties  in  the  future.  And 
notwithstanding  all  its  drawbacks  it  has  been  the  means  of 
publishing  and  circulating  a  number  of  tracts  and  volumes 
which  without  its  aid  would  never  have  seen  the  light,  and 
which  have  set  forth  the  doctrines  of  God's  word  in  all  their 
integrity  and  fullness,  and  so  were  adapted  not  only  to  make 
men  Christians,  but  the  best  style  of  Christians,  intelligent, 
well-grounded  in  the  truth,  able  to  contend  vigorously  for  the 
faith,  not  carried  away  by  every  wind  of  teaching  or  sleight  of 
men,  but  knowing  what  they  believe  and  why  they  believe  it. 
And  if  the  experience  of  the  last  generation  teaches  anything, 
it  teaches  that  the  faith  once  given  to  the  saints,  the  doctrine 
that  is  according  to  godliness,  must  be  proclaimed  and 
defended  not  only  by  the  pulpit  but  by  the  press.  It  is  true, 
preaching  comes  first,  but  the  printed  page  is  not  far  behind 
it.  And  it  will  never  do  for  the  church  to  forego  the  use  of 
so  mighty  an  agent  in  shaping  and  directing  popular  feeling 
and  opinion. 

But  while  the  review  of  the  generation  past  shows  a  rapid 
and  gratifying  advance,  there  are  two  drawbacks  which  we 
cannot  leave  unnoticed.  One  of  these  is  the  decline  of  our 
church  in  this  city.  True,  it  is  one  that  is  shared  by  all  our 
sister  denominations,  but  it  is  none  the  less  disagreeable  for 
that  reason.  The  configuration  of  our  island  and  the  increase 
of  wealth  and  lu.xury  have  gradually  forced  away  nearly  the 
whole  of  what  is  called  the  middle  class  of  society,  so  that 
well-to-do  people  spread  themselves  along  the  central  ridge 
while  the  outlying  portions  on  cither  side  are  given  up  to 
those  who  are  too  poor  to  sustain  the  institutions  of  the  Gospel. 
This  explains  the  certain  but  melancholy  fact  that  while  we 
have  grown  everywhere  else,  we  have  not  grown  here,  but 
rather  have  receded.  In  1849  there  were  ten  self-supporting 
Dutch  churches  south  of  Twenty-third  Street,  while  now 
there  are  but  seven  south  of  the  Central  Park,  and  some  of 
these,  through  no  fault  of  their  own,  greatly  need  help.     And 


The  Denomination.  21 


on  the  whole  island  our  congregations  are  fewer  in  all  than 
they  were  at  the  time  specified.  The  other  drawback  is  the 
change  of  name.  A  dozen  years  ago  it  was  proposed  to  drop 
out  the  word  "Dutch"  from  the  style  which  the  Church  had 
adopted  in  the  case  of  its  first  incorporation.  The  measure 
was  vigorously  opposed,  but  was  ultimately  carried  by  an 
overwhelming  majority.  The  change  was  advocated  on  the 
ground  that  it  would  remove  obstacles  and  greatly  facilitate 
the  enlargement  of  the  Church.  I  have  never  heard  of  any 
one  who  supposes  that  this  expectation  has  been  realized, 
while  I  have  heard  of  not  a  few  who  acknowledge  that  it  was 
a  great  mistake.  The  change  v^^as  opposed  on  the  grounds 
that  it  was  not  called  for  by  circumstances;  that  it  would  lead 
to  constant  confusion  if  the  German  Reformed  Church  made 
the  same  change,  whicl'^  they  proposed  to  do;  that  it  would 
facilitate  propositions  to  merge  the  Church  in  another  body; 
and  that  it  would  wound  and  dishearten  many  old  and  tried 
friends  of  the  Church  whose  good  will  was  of  great  import- 
ance. All  of  these  forebodings  came  to  pass.  To  speak  of 
any  man  or  measure  as  belonging  to  the  Reformed  Church 
teaches  nothing,  for  the  words  do  not  inform  the  hearer 
whether  it  is  the  "Dutch"  or  the  "German"  church  that  is 
referred  to.  Scarcely  five  years  passed  before  a  determined 
attempt  was  made  to  unite  our  communion  with  the  Northern 
Presbyterian  in  such  a  way  that  our  identity  would  have  been 
wholly  lost.  And  although  it  did  not  succeed,  untold  injury 
was  done  by  the  discussions  which  it  caused.  And  then,  fur- 
ther, many  of  those  who  had  shown  their  fidelity  to  the  cause 
by  long  years  of  service,  were  so  hurt  by  the  proceeding  that 
their  interest  and  activity  were  greatly  diminished  and  never 
wholly  recovered.  The  change  was  one  of  those  things  which 
once  done  cannot  be  undone,  and  though  I  look  back  with 
pleasure  upon  my  own  steadfast  and  vehement  opposition  to  it, 
I  would  not  recur  to  the  matter  now  were  it  not  necessary  to 
be  stated  in  any  fair  review  of  the  past.  Still,  notwithstanding 
these  drawbacks,  our  Church  has  vindicated  its  right  to  live, 
and  may  reasonably  address  itself  with  redoubled  vigor  to  the 


22  The  Review  of  a  Generation. 


performance  of  its  mission — to  maintain  on  this  soil  a  repre- 
sentative of  the  best  type  of  the  Reformed  Churches  of  the 
Continent;  to  exemplify  the  true  use  of  a  liturgy;  to  uphold, 
at  all  costs  and  hazards,  soundness  in  the  faith;  to  insist  upon 
the  necessity  of  a  learned  ministry,  and  spare  no  pains  to 
secure  it;  to  furnish  the  needful  aid  for  the  assimilation  of 
Ilollandish  immigrants;  and,  finally, to  do  its  part  in  carrying 
the  Gospel  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  From  the  denomination 
at  large  I  turn  now  to  our  own  particular  communion. 

III. — The  Collegiate  Church. 

In  looking  back  over  the  history  of  our  own  Church  the  first 
thing  which  suggests  itself  is  the  pcrsoiuiel  of  ministers  and 
consistory.  Of  the  elders  and  deacons  by  whom  I  was  called, 
fifteen  have  died  and  tAvo  have  removed  from  New  York, 
while  of  the  rest  only  two  now  remain  in  office,  viz:  Mr. 
John  Van  Nest  and  Mr.  Robert  Buck.  Dr.  W.  C.  Brownlee, 
whose  place  I  was  chosen  to  fill,  remained  for  some  years  in 
full  mental  vigor  but  incapacitated  by  bodily  ailments  from 
rendering  the  public  service  which  had  for  so  many  years 
been  a  blessing  to  the  Church  and  the  world.  It  is  a  mistake 
to  think  of  him  only  as  a  master  in  the  Roman  controversy, 
and  one  who  drove  every  antagonist  before  him.  He  was 
also  a  Boanerges  in  the  pulpit,  and  all  the  old  men  who 
remember  him  as  he  was  in  his  best  days  bear  cheerful  witness 
to  his  unusual  power  in  popular  address.  The  other  col- 
leagues, Drs.  Knox,  DcWitt  and  Vermilye  were  in  their 
prime,  and  together  wielding  an  inBuence  in  this  city  wholly 
unccjualed  elsewhere.  Of  these  now  only  one  remains,  the 
present  senior  pastor,  whose  bow  abides  in  full  strength  not- 
witjhstanding  his  advanced  years.  Of  the  other  two,  one, 
Dr.  Knox  died  by  accident  in  1858,  the  other.  Dr.  DeWitt, 
continued  in  .service  until  1874,  when  he,  too,  was  called  up 
higher.  Never  were  two  men  more  unlike  each  other  in 
natural  con.stitution  so  closely  and  happily  associated  to- 
gether— one,    sound,    well-read    and    judicious,    simple    and 


TJie  Collegiate  Clmrch.  23 

straightforward  in  pulpit  utterance,  a  profound  judge  of  human 
nature,  full  of  executive  skill  and  a  genius  in  all  matters  of 
administration:  the  other,  a  child  of  nature,  dowered  with  an 
exuberant  imagination,  master  of  an  unstudied  eloquence 
which  held  audiences  spell-bound,  and  possessed  of  a  spiritual 
insight  which  no  windings  of  the  natural  heart  could  baffle. 
In  both  cases  an  unusually  close  walk  with  God  sanctified 
their  original  gifts,  and  thus  the  two  pastors  stood  side  by 
side,  each  the  complement  of  the  other,  and  by  their  joint 
activity  and  influence,  proved  such  a  blessing  to  our  Church 
as  rendered  its  prosperity  at  least  equal  to  that  of  any  previous 
period  of  its  long  history.  It  is  a  happy  thing  that  the  names 
of  these  two  eminent  men  are  preserved  in  connection  with 
places  of  public  worship :  one,  the  Knox  Memorial  Chapel  in 
Ninth  Avenue;  the  qther,  the  DeWitt  Mission  in  West 
Twenty-ninth  Street. 

Thirty  years  ago  the  edifices  in  use  by  our  people  were  the 
North,  then  in  its  decline;  this  house,  which  had  been  opened 
for  worship  in  1839,  and  some  years  after  was  formally  desig- 
nated as  the  Middle;  and  the  building  in  Ninth  Street,  which 
stood  on  the  ground  now  occupied  by  the  great  establishment 
of  A.  T.  Stewart  &  Co.  In  the  year  1854  the  elegant  struc- 
ture on  Twenty-ninth  Street  and  Fifth  Avenue  was  dedicated, 
in  consequence  of  which  the  Ninth  Street  Church  was  relin- 
quished. Then  the  Middle  Church,  reinforced  by  the  families 
which  had  left  Ninth  Street,  reached  its  highest  degree  of 
prosperity — it  being  difficult  for  a  time  to  secure  seats  either 
on  the  ground  floor  or  in  the  galleries.  But  the  migration  of 
households,  which  seems  to  be  a  chronic  and  unchangeable 
feature  of  our  New  York  life,  began  almost  immediately  to 
make  itself  felt,  and  now  for  twenty  years  there  has  been  a 
constant  diminution  in  the  number  of  worshippers.  In  some 
cases  families  died  out,  in  others  they  removed,  but  in  either 
event  their  successors  were  not  of  the  church-going  popula- 
tion, but  usually  and  increasingly  of  a  foreign  nationality,  so 
that  this  Church  has  gone  through  the  same  experience  which 
marked  the  later  history  of  the  old  Middle  Church  in  Nassau 


24  The  Review  of  a  Generation. 

Street  and  the  North.  It  is  an  illustration  of  the  excellent 
judgment  and  foresight  of  Dr.  Knox,  that  just  after  the 
Twenty-ninth  Street  Church  was  opened,  he  suggested  to  the 
Consistory  the  propriety  of  securing  the  fee  of  the  plot  of 
ground  on  the  corner  of  which  the  Forty-eighth  Street  Church 
was  afterwards  built,  and  by  his  influence  with  the  corporation 
of  Columbia  College,  of  which  he  was  a  member,  he  secured 
the  consummation  of  the  purchase.  No  more  wise  and  timely 
expenditure  of  money  has  ever  been  made.  A  chapel  was 
erected  upon  the  rear  of  the  plot,  and  opened  on  Christmas 
Day,  1864,  and  the  nucleus  of  a  congregation  was  soon  gath- 
ered. A  few  years  afterward  the  foundations  of  a  church 
were  laid,  and  in  1872  the  completed  edifice  was  thrown  open 
for  worship,  being  the  costliest,  and  in  several  respects  the 
finest  specimen  of  ecclesiastical  architecture  the  Consistory 
have  ever  built.  Of  the  three  church  edifices  erected  within 
the  last  forty  years  it  may  be  truly  said,  that  for  solidity, 
convenience  and  taste  they  do  honor  to  their  builders 
and  worthily  represent  the  spirit  of  our  venerable  church, 
shunning  as  they  do  meanness  and  misplaced  economy  on 
one  hand,  and  ostentatious  extravagance  and  gaudy  orna- 
mentation on  the  other. 

It  should  be  added,  while  on  the  subject  of  buildings,  that 
the  parochial  school  of  the  church,  now  in  the  third  century 
of  its  existence,  changed  its  habitation  during  this  period. 
When  I  came  here  it  had  scanty  and  inconvenient  apartments 
in  Fourth  Street  near  Sixth  Avenue,  but  in  1861  removed  to 
the  commodious  edifice  in  Twenty-ninth  Street  near  Seventh 
Avonue,  where  it  has  continued  its  useful  labors  under  the 
direction  of  the  accomplished  principal,  Mr.  Henry  W. 
Dunshee,  who  has  spent  the  best  part  of  his  life  inthis  useful 
and  honorable  service,  and  can  point  to  graduates  in  all  the 
learned  professions  as  well  as  in  the  various  walks  of  mechan- 
ical or  mercantile  life,  who  reflect  credit  upon  the  institution 
where  they  received  their  first  scholastic  training.  Not  a  few 
of  their  companions  served  their  country  in  the  war  for  the 
Union,  and  those  who  died  in  that  sore  conflict  could  justly 


Tlie  Collegiate  CluircJi.  25 

bear  on  their  tombstones  the  inscription  placed  by  the  Swiss 
on  the  monument  to  the  patriotic  martyrs  who  fell  on  the 
field  of  St.  Jacob  at  Basle:  "Our  souls  to  God,  our  bodies  to 
the  foe." 

One  of  the  wisest  and  most  far-reaching  of  the  measures  of 
the  Consistory,  during  the  period  of  which  I  speak,  was  the 
institution  of  a  lay  agency  in  connection  with  the  usual 
ministrations  in  the  North  Dutch  Church,  then  occupying 
the  entire  front  on  William  Street,  between  Fulton  and  Ann 
Streets,  with  a  consistory  room  in  the  rear.  The  layman  em- 
ployed was  Mr.  J.  C.  Lanphier,  who  still  lives  to  carry  on  his 
work.  He  was  led  in  the  Providence  of  God  to  commence  in 
September,  1857,  a  prayer-meeting,  to  be  held  every  day  pre- 
cisely at  noon,  which  proved  to  be  just  what  was  needed 
to  foster  and  bring  out  the  increased  interest  in  religion 
which  accompanied  or  followed  the  financial  disasters  of  that 
year.  The  record  of  that  meeting  and  of  its  great  useful- 
ness in  this  city,  throughout  our  land  and  even  beyond  the 
sea,  is  on  high,  and  will  never  be  fully  known  in  this 
world.  Opinions  may  differ  as  to  the  present  need  of  such 
a  service,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  past.  For  years 
that  meeting  met  a  pressing  want  and  was  the  means  of  incal- 
culable good.  It  was  a  rallying  point  for  the  friends  of  Christ 
of  every  name  and  from  every  quarter,  and  a  place  where 
many  a  distressed  soul,  too  timid  to  apply  elsewhere,  went 
and  was  pointed  to  the  one  Saviour.  The  conservative 
character  of  the  Consistory,  who  maintained  the  meeting, 
held  it  rigidly  to  its  original  purpose,  and  hindered  it  from 
being  turned  aside  to  any  personal,  partizan  or  sectarian  end. 
Such  attempts  were  frequently  made,  as  was  indeed  to  be 
expected,  but  they  were  always  foiled. 

One  form  of  Christian  activity  peculiar  to  the  last  genera- 
tion, as  compared  with  those  that  went  before,  is  the  City 
Mission  Work.  There  was,  indeed,  when  I  came  here,  a 
very  strong  and  active  association  called  the  City  Missionary 
Society  of  the  Reformed  Protestant  Dutch  Church,  auxiliary 
to  the  Board  of  Domestic  Missions.     But  this  had  for  its 


26  TJic  Review  of  a  Generation. 


aim  the  forming  and  aiding  of  new  churches  until  they 
reached  a  self-sustaining  basis.  And  in  this  way  it  ren- 
dered a  very  useful  service.  But  as  years  rolled  on,  and 
the  peculiarities  of  our  New  York  population  already 
referred  to  became  more  fixed  and  general — peculiarities 
not  to  be  found  in  any  other  city  of  the  world  so  far  as 
I  know — the  field  of  its  operation  became  so  contracted  that 
its  labors  were  discontinued.  Then  a  new  problem  arose. 
This  was  to  meet  the  spiritual  wants  of  the  large  bodies  of 
people  on  the  eastern  and  western  sides  of  the  island,  who 
were  not  likely  ever  to  be  able  to  maintain  the  Gospel  from 
their  own  resources.  The  first  efforts  in  this  direction  were 
in  the  way  of  Mission  Sunday  Schools.  These  were  sus- 
tained by  a  committee  of  the  congregation,  and  met  in  such 
premises  as  could  be  conveniently  hired.  But  as  it  was  hard 
to  obtain  suitable  rooms  in  this  way,  it  was  determined  to 
buy  or  build.  And  so  it  came  to  pass  that  the  Consistory 
provided  the  requisite  buildings  in  Twenty-ninth  Street,  in 
Ninth  Avenue  and  in  Seventh  Avenue,  while  the  congregations 
attended  to  all  other  expenses.  At  first  strenuous  effort  was 
made  not  only  to  win  the  children,  but  to  induce  their 
parents  to  attend  church.  But  it  was  found  impossible.  The 
people  could  not  be  persuaded  to  go  with  any  regularity  to 
church  edifices  whose  size  and  elegance  seemed  to  put  them 
to  shame.  They  did  not  feel  at  home  even  in  a  corner  of  the 
gallery,  and  there  was  no  way  to  correct  this  feeling.  It  is 
common  for  persons  to  urge  that  the  rich  and  the  poor 
should  meet  together  in  the  house  of  God,  and  certainly  it  is 
very  desirable,  but  if  the  poor  will  not  come,  what  are  we  to 
do  ?  The  only  answer  to  this  inquiry  so  far  given,  is  the 
appointment  of  pastors  to  labor  among  these  people  in  edifices 
which  though  neat  and  comfortable  yet  will  form  no  glaring 
contrast  to  their  usual  residences.  The  peculiarity  of  this 
enterprise  is  that  it  is  a  finality.  It  is  not  simply  a  prepara- 
tion for  something  better  and  does  not  contemplate  a  new 
denominational  centre.  It  merely  meets  present  wants,  taking 
the  Gospel  to  those  who  otherwise  would  live  and  die  without 


Tlic  Collegiate  Church.  27 

it.  This  is  not  a  pleasant  prospect,  and  there  is  no  one  that 
I  know  who  is  satisfied  with  the  existing  posture  of  this  work 
in  our  city,  but  it  is  the  best  we  can  do.  Our  four  missions 
are  in  very  competent  hands,  God's  word  is  faithfully  preached 
and  the  discipline  of  the  house  is  carefully  maintained,  nor 
has  the  gracious  Saviour  left  himself  without  witness  in  the 
hopeful  conversion  of  souls. 

Here  I  ought  to  make  mention  of  the  work  done  among 
our  German  population,  in  which  the  Collegiate  Church  has 
always  taken  a  deep  interest,  and  which  it  has  largely  aided 
both  by  the  action  of  the  corporate  body  and  by  the  labors 
of  individual  members.  One  of  the  German  churches  is 
especially  worthy  of  notice — that  in  Houston  Street.  It 
enjoyed  the  services  of  three  successive  pastors — Rudy, 
Guldin  and  Geyer — men"  of  apostolic  zeal  and  character,  under 
whose  administrations  it  some  years  ago  reached  a  degree 
of  strength  which  took  it  off  the  list  of  beneficiary  churches. 
Now  it  gives  instead  of  receiving,  and  promises  to  be  the 
mother  of  other  organizations  of  similar  excellence.  Indeed, 
one  of  the  most  gratifying  things  in  the  retrospect  of  the  last 
generation  is  the  series  of  efforts  made  in  behalf  of  immigrants 
from  Germany.  The  field  was  a  very  trying  one,  and  the 
success  desired  was  not  in  all  respects  reached,  but  there  has 
been  no  lack  of  faithful  effort,  and  it  is  much  to  be  able  to  say 
of  those  who  bore  the  heat  and  burden  of  the  day  that  they 
have  done  what,  they  could. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  pastors  who  preceded  me  in  service, 
but  there  are  four  who  were -called  after  me.  The  first  of  these 
was  the  Rev.  Dr.  Joseph  T.  Duryea,  a  man  of  very  remark- 
able gifts,  who  began  his  labors  here  in  1862  and  terminated 
them  by  resignation  in  1867,  having  in  those  years  accom- 
plished a  very  fruitful  ministry.  He  was  succeeded  in  1868 
by  the  Rev.  James  M.  Ludlow,  D.  D.,  who  continued  in  the 
pastorship  until  1877,  when  he  resigned  this  charge  and 
accepted  a  call  to  the  Westminster  Church  in  Brooklyn, 
where  it  is  understood  that  he  has  met  with  eminent  and 
deserved  success  both  as  preacher  and  pastor.     In  1870  the 


28  The  Review  of  a  Generation. 

Rev.  William  Ormiston,  D.  D.,  was  installed  and  still  con- 
tinues, abundantly  fulfilling  all  the  expectations  which  led  to 
his  call.  Within  a  few  months  yet  another  has  been  added, 
the  Rev.  E.  B.  Coe,  in  regard  to  whom  I  will  only  say 
that  no  one  of  his  predecessors  has  been  settled  under 
circumstances  which  gave  brighter  promise  of  a  happy  and 
prosperous  ministry.  Within  the  last  ten  years  a  very  great 
change  has  been  wrought  in  the  mutual  relation  of  the 
ministers.  From  the  beginning  of  the  past  centur)%  indeed 
ever  since  there  was  a  plurality  of  ministers,  the  custom  was, 
as  it  still  is  in  Amsterdam,  that  all  should  preach  in  rotation 
to  all  the  congregations  and  be  held  to  pastoral  service 
indiscriminately  toward  the  whole.  This  custom  was  defended 
in  the  charge  given  to  me  by  Dr.  Knox  when  I  was  installed, 
on  the  ground  that  it  promoted  the  unity  of  the  church,  gave 
to  the  people  the  benefit  of  a  variety  of  pulpit  talent,  lightened 
the  labor  of  each  minister  and  at  the  same  time  added  to  his 
personal  influence  that  of  all  his  colleagues.  These  reasons 
gained  increased  force  with  me  from  the  lessons  of  observation 
and  experience,  and  I  am  still  of  the  opinion  that  the  change 
which  set  aside  the  rotation  was  a  serious  error.  But  it  was 
made,  and  the  ministers  now  are  just  as  widely  separated  and 
distinguished  in  their  respective  charges  as  if  they  belonged 
to  so  many  independent  churches.  All  that  is  left  for  those 
who  think  as  I  do  is  to  hope  and  pray  that  the  same  gracious 
Providence  which  has  watched  over  the  church  for  two  cen- 
turies and  a  half  will  still  continue  its  kind  care,  and  render  the 
new  regime  quite  as  prosperous  as  the  old,  and  even  more  so. 
Here  I  might  perhaps  appropriately  conclude  this  discourse, 
having  accomplished  that  review  of  the  salient  points  in  the 
past  which  was  proposed  in  the  outset.  But  having  looked 
back,  it  may  be  well  to  look  forward — which  at  ni)^  time  of 
life  I  can  afford  to  do  with  a  certain  disinterestedness.  Any 
minister  who  has  labored  in  one  sphere  for  ten  years,  and 
then  in  another  for  thirty,  has  done  the  most  of  his  life  work. 
Few  or  none  can  expect  to  emulate  the  great  statesman  of 
France,  M.  Thiers,  who  was  enabled  in  the  last  seven  years 


TJic  Collegiate  Church.  29 

of  his  life,  when  he  was  beyond  threescore  and  ten,  to  render 
service  to  his  native  land,  far  surpassing  in  importance 
and  value  all  the  laborious  achievements  of  his  former  years. 
Surely  I  have  no  such  expectation.  But  the  love  I  bear  for 
the  venerable  church  and  the  interest  I  take  in  its  fortunes 
prompt  and  entitle  me  to  speak  freely  of  the  future.  It  seems 
then  to  me  that  there  is  just  as  much  reason  for  the  existence 
of  our  denomination  now  as  at  any  former  day.  The  church 
on  earth  is  the  church  militant.  So  the  Apocalypse  predicts 
on  every  page,  and  so  the  voice  of  history  proclaims,  ask  the 
question  where  we  will.  The  scene  of  conflict  changes,  but 
the  battle  is  going  on  all  the  time.  Sometimes  the  foe 
assumes  one  shape,  and  at  other  times  another,  but  at  bot- 
tom it  is  the  same  inherent,  essential,  inalienable  difference 
between  the  world  and  Christ.  The  question  at  issue  at  any 
particular  period  may  touch  doctrine,  or  order,  or  life,  but  in 
any  case  the  contending  parties  are  substantially  the  same. 
Now  in  the  century  past  our  church  had  an  important  part 
to  perform  as  a  witness  for  doctrinal  truth  and  against  all 
forms  of  fanatical  excess.  The  old  foes  have  well  nigh  dis- 
appeared from  the  arena.  Hopkinsianism,  Taylorism,  New 
Lightism  which  once  were  so  active  and  formidable  now  seem 
like  venerable  fossils.  They  are  gone,  but  the  place  they  once 
occupied  is  by  no  means  vacant.  New  questions  have  arisen 
which  are  even  more  serious.  These  do  not  refer  simply  to  the 
parts  of  the  Christian  system  or  to  its  completeness,  but  to  its 
very  existence.  Was  there  a  creation  ?  Are  the  Sacred 
Scriptures  a  final  authority?  Are  miracles  a  burden  or  a  help 
to  the  Christian  apologist?  Is  sin  an  intrinsic  and  inherent 
evil  ?  Is  expiation  a  reality  ?  Does  retribution  belong  to  the 
idea  of  Divine  Justice  ?  These  and  such  as  these  are  the 
points  that  are  controverted  now,  and  upon  which  it  is 
required  that  the  watchman  upon  Zion's  walls  gives  no 
uncertain  sound.  The  times  require  men  who  are  not  to  be 
frightened  by  hard  names,  who  are  willing  to  bear  the 
reproach  of  being  called  mere  obstructives  or  stupid  con- 
servatives, yet  who  are  able  to  give  a  reason  of  the  faith  that  is 


30  The  Review  of  a  Generation. 


in  them,  and  argue  as  well  as  contend  for  the  truth.  Now  I 
think  a  small  homogeneous  body  like  our  Dutch  Church  with 
the  prestige  of  its  past  history,  its  central  position,  its  union 
of  eastern  steadfastness  and  western  energy,  is  eminently  fitted 
to  stand  in  the  front  rank  in  the  time  of  trial.  Even  on 
occasion  of  the  severest  onset  it  maybe  able  to  maintain  its 
serenity  and  say  what  Athanasius  did  at  the  time  when  Julian 
the  Apostate  seemed  to  be  carrying  all  before  him,  Nubecula 
est,  transibit.     It  is  onl)-  a  little  cloud,  it  will  pass. 

And  so  in  like  manner  of  our  Collegiate  Church.  As  from 
the  beginning  it  has  kept  pace  with  the  population  of  the 
city,  erecting  its  temples  in  the  Fort,  in  Garden  Street,  in 
Nassau  Street,  in  William  Street,  in  Lafayette  Place,  and  on 
Fifth  Avenue  at  Twenty-ninth  Street  and  at  Forty-eighth 
Street,  so  is  it  to  keep  on  following  the  direction  of  the  com- 
munity and  furnishing  new  local  centres,  as  they  may  be  needed, 
for  rallying  the  friends  of  orthodox  doctrine  and  scriptural 
holiness.  To  sit  still  is  to  die.  To  build  no  new  churches  is 
to  commit  suicide.  We  may,  indeed,  take  care  of  ourselves, 
but  what  is  to  become  of  those  who  come  after  us  ?  Where 
would  be  our  church  now  if  the  fathers  fifty  years  ago  had 
resolved  not  to  break  ground  away  from  the  lower  part  of 
the  town  ?  It  may  be  said  in  reply  that  the  Consistory  and 
people  could  better  employ  their  funds  in  building  chapels 
and  plain  edifices  in  the  destitute  parts  of  our  city.  But  then 
the  question  recurs  who  is  to  support  the  ministers  who  labor 
in  these  chapels  ?  To  do  this  and  the  other  missionary  work 
required  among  our  own  population  between  the  two  rivers — 
to  say  nothing  of  other  meritorious  works  of  Christian  enter- 
prise—  we  need  strong  and  well  organized  congregations 
along  the  centre  of  the  island.  This  is  indispensable ;  other- 
wise there  will  be,  there  must  be,  in  the  natural  course  of 
events,  a  Consistory  without  a  constituency,  and  when  decay 
is  seen  both  at  the  centre  and  at  the  extremities  the  end  is 
not  far  off  But  surely  this  cannot  be  the  intention  of  Divine 
Providence.  The  oldest  church  on  Manhattan  Island  has 
not  been  i)reserved  through  the  quarter  of  a  millenium  only 


Tlie  Collegiate  Church.  3 1 

to  perish  ingloriously  just  when  it  is  most  needed,  aHke  for 
the  defence  of  the  Gospel  and  for  aggressive  action  in  the 
Lord's  name.  Oh,  no !  let  us  hope  and  pray  and  labor  for 
better  things.  Let  us  recall  the  kindling  words  uttered  but  a 
year  ago  by  an  eminent  divine*  not  of  our  communion,  who 
after  passing  in  rapid  review  the  elements  which  entered  into 
our  constitution  spoke  of  us  as  "the  Church  of  the  Future  in 
America."  In  his  view  "  the  same  faith  in  the  Gospel,  the 
same  love  for  liberty  and  for  learning,  and  the  same  hospi- 
tality toward  other  communions,  which  were  the  glory  of 
this  church  in  its  earlier  life  and  have  been  ever  since,  will 
keep  "  our  city  "  pure  and  make  it  purer,  and  will  give  to  the 
semi-millenial  anniversary  of  the  church  a  glory  that  we 
cannot  prefigure  and  can  only  vaguely  anticipate."  He 
concluded  his  eloquent  ^  utterance  with  the  fervid  ejaculation 
"  God  grant  it ! "  It  is  for  you  and  me,  my  brethren,  to 
do  what  in  us  lies  toward  the  fulfillment  of  such  bright 
anticipations.  Let  us  each  in  our  respective  sphere,  whether 
of  counsel  or  of  action  or  of  both,  perform  the  duty  that 
comes  before  us  with  diligence  and  constancy,  not  out  of 
sectarian  pride  or  personal  aggrandizement,  but  from  affec- 
tionate loyalty  to  Christ  and  love  to  the  church  which  He 
purchased  with  His  blood.  Then,  in  the  exercise  of  that 
harmony,  that  oneness  of  feeling  which  shines  out  in  the 
ancestral  motto,  {^eendraclit  inaakt  inachf),  we  may  expect  to 
draw  down  the  divine  blessing  and  see  the  coming  generation 
excel  the  one  that  has  just  passed,  in  activity,  in  zeal,  in  self- 
denial,  in  consecration,  and  consequently  in  successful  service 
for  Christ  and  His  cause.  Not  merely  shall  the  children  be 
in  the  place  of  the  fathers,  but  they  shall  hold  a  higher 
position  and  wield  a  yet  mightier  influence  in  staying  the 
progress  of  error  and  urging  the  diffusion  of  truth  until  the 
whole  of  society  in  our  city  and  over  this  broad  land  is  trans- 
formed into  the  kingdom  of  Christ. 

*  The  Rev.  R.  S.  Storrs,  D.  D. 


Membei|s  of  the  Go!(sistoi|y  \\  1849. 


Elders. 

Gilbert  Allen, 
William  Bleakley, 
Jacob  Brouwer, 
David  I.  Demarest, 
Samuel  Dunshee, 
David  Board, 
James  C.  Faulkner, 
Thomas  Jeremiah, 
John  Neilson, 
Joseph  Snyder, 
Abraham  Van  Nest, 
James  Van  Antwerp. 


Deacons. 

Edward  Anthony, 
Edward  L.  Beadle, 
William  Bogardus, 
Robert  Buck, 
Charles  S.  Little, 
John  L.  Smith, 
George  S.  Stitt, 
John  Van  Nest, 
Hubert  Van  Wagenen, 
William  F.  Van  Wagenen, 
Peter  R.  Warner, 
Albert  G.  Zabriskie. 


PHOTOMOUNT 
PAMPHLET  BINDER 

•AYtOfiO  BROS.  Im> 
SyrMuf*,  N.  V. 


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